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Thursday, May 17, 2012

SM Johnson ~ Thursday Morning Coffee ~

I am winging my way to New York city today, where apparently there is a surcharge for internet use, which will render me incommunicado.

So I decided to leave you all a treat to hold you over until my return.

For Above the Dungeon, book 1, click HERE, add to your Smashwords cart, and at checkout enter coupon code VZ57Z.

For Out of the Dungeon, book 2, click HERE, add to your Smashwords cart, and at checkout enter coupon code YS77H.

I'm going to give them away while I'm gone, because I am totally nice like that. And because I am giving up shameless self-promotion while on vacation, I figured the best way to promote without promoting is to change the price tag to free.

And please send your friends over here to my little home on the interweb so they can get the coupons, too!

So, there are some things you should know about my Dungeon series before you download them.

#1 - They are naughty. Someone told me they are "mommy porn," which cracks me up (ahem, do you think I wrote them for some reason other than self-entertainment?) The intended audience is straight women and gay men.

#2 - I jokingly refer to them as Fifty Shades of Gay. Mommy porn with boys. The story line is not similar, but the elements of BDSM are. Or rather, the fact that the story is about a BDSM Dominant and a potential vanilla sub - that element is similar. Except I don't attempt to titillate my audience with the cold, dry details of a slave contract. Blah.

Jeff lives by his contract, 24/7 - but for Dare, this stuff is all new, somewhat shocking, and he's not all that sure how he feels about it, except that a part of him really gets off on the dark path Roman (the Dungeon Master) is leads him down.

#3 - This is explicit erotica, mainly with boys. So if that kind of thing squicks you out, don't read it. (But feel free to send your freaky friends over here to get the coupons, that'd be awesome, k? Thx!)

Next set of warnings, required due to some negative feedback I have received in the form of reviews. Out of the Dungeon not strictly gay erotica. There are male/male couplings, but also female/female, and egads, male/female. Shocking, I know.

But here's the thing: the division of gender and sexual orientation isn't always as clear-cut as people seem to think it should be, or would like it to be, or are comfortable with. Whatever.

People are messy. Emotions are messy. And just like your body can love someone without your head, your head can also love someone without your body. And for a person who's primary coping mechanism is to engage in sexual activity of some form, the divisions can get really blurry.

Is it a bad thing if I make you uncomfortable? Because I kind of like it.

I'm not so great at coloring inside the proscribed lines. When I write, I sometimes can't help leaving the bedroom door open. And sometimes a gay man and a straight (or lesbian or bi-sexual) woman might have sex with each other. If it feels right for the story I'm telling, I go with it. Which isn't to say that I'm a master story-teller, but you know what? This one is mine to tell.

I got the feeling that Out of the Dungeon was too uncomfortable for my publisher. And that's okay. They have a target market, a long line of repeat customers who come with their wallets out and bring certain expectations of the product they want to buy.

I don't always understand or care for what the target market wants. They want to read about gay characters having sex, they want to read about love and friendship, but they don't want to deal with the blurry lines, the messiness. They want a happily ever after ending (or at the very least, happy for now), and when you label a thing romance, that's one of the promises you make, so they are correct to have that expectation.

But I can't seem to build a story to fit between the lines, and so I go off and create my own.

Sometimes the whole thing baffles me.

There's a target market lately that's just eating up books about werewolf brothers (often twins) and the female mate they want to build a bond with and then share their lives (and their bed) as a threesome. My libido draws the line at the "brothers" part - but the rest of it is all good.

But I think, how odd, the target market is okay with brothers sharing a consenting woman, but not okay with a gay guy and a bi-sexual woman sharing their bodies with one another during a time of grief.

Huh. Other people seem to cross lines back and forth with impunity, being randomly praised for "shocking" readers, or alternatively, denigrated for going too far. I will never figure it out, but I'd rather go too far than not go far enough. I'd rather shock than live in mediocrity.

What I know about small, local BDSM communities is that there often is a limited membership - so the person who likes the activities you like might not happen to be the gender you prefer for romance. It's why so many non-metro events are labeled "Pansexual."

Pansexual is a way to invite all kinky people, regardless of gender or sexual preference. Over time this mix of people comes to trust one another, form relationships, become attached. Who they partner with and who they play with are often different individuals.

A single gay boy might have an intense relationship with his female Domme. A submissive who considers herself straight is eager to learn how to use her mouth please her female Domme. A straight couple take a bi-sexual woman home to their bed, just for fun. A lesbian spanks a gay bootblack until he gets a hard-on and then comes in his pants. A straight woman dirty-dances with a gay boy, and wonders for half a minute if she was born in a body with the wrong parts. A gay male Dom makes a straight submissive crawl to the bar to get him a drink, trash-talking the sub the whole way. The humiliation play takes the sub to the moon and back, and is one of the most transcendent experiences he's ever had. He wonders if he really is straight, after all...